U.S. Wine Industry

The United States is the world’s largest consumer and importer of wine, and the fourth largest producer.  Since most of our research projects revolve around grape growing and wine, a comprehensive analysis of the industry provides crucial context to examining the economic benefits from technological innovations or the effect of policy. In a series of publications presented below we review and document the history of the U.S. wine industry with particular attention to the role of U.S. government policy and broader changes in the U.S. economy as they shaped the economic development of wine production and consumption. We examine the structural features of the U.S. wine industry from the varieties grown in the vineyard through the marketing chain to the final consumer from an economics perspective and in the context of global market for wine.

Researchers:

Julian Alston
Kym Anderson
James Lapsley
Olena Sambucci
Daniel Sumner

Publications:

Lapsley, J.T., J.M. Alston, and O. Sambucci. “Structural features of the U.S. Wine Industry.” Chapter for Adeline Alonso Ugaglia, Luis Miguel Albisu, Jean-Marie Cardebat, Alessandro Corsi, Chema Gil, and Simonetta Mazzarino, eds, The Wine Industry Worldwide, (in process, 2017).

Alston, J.M., J.T. Lapsley, O. Sambucci, and D.A. Sumner. “A Brief Economic History of the U.S. Wine Industry.” Chapter for Kym Anderson and Vicente Pinilla, eds, Wine’s Evolving Globalization: Comparative Histories of the Old and New World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (in process, 2017).

Alston, J. M., K. Anderson and O. Sambucci. 2015. “Drifting Towards Bordeaux? The Evolving Varietal Emphasis of U.S. Wine Regions.” Journal of Wine Economics 10(3): 349–378.